Shipping container



p 1969 o. E. ELLISON ET AL 3,467,297

SHIPPING CONTAINER Filed Sept. 11, 1967 O O O O lNVE,-.'T( )R. Danna g GEM-150M ILLIE UFFY Z l BY 0 I A T TORNEYS United States Patent 3,467,297 SHIPPING CONTAINER Donald E. Ellison and Willie E. Guffy, Indianapolis, Ind.,

assignors to Inland Container Corporation, Indianapolis, Ind., a corporation of Indiana Filed Sept. 11, 1967, Ser. No. 666,740 Int. Cl. B65d /02 U.S. Cl. 229-37 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A container erected from a blank of corrugated paper board or the like for shipping bottles of liquor. A protective coating, such as an adhesive repellent and nonabrasive material, on inner faces of the cover flaps, and arranged to prevent adhesion and abrasion of Government tax stamps afiixed over the bottle caps, the coating material being applied in strips parallel to the flap fold lines enabling uniform and continuous application of the coating as the blank is fed horizontally through normal box making equipment.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention This invention relates generally to containers erected from fiat blanks of paper board or the like and having end cover flaps with coatings applied thereto.

Description of the prior art A problem in shipping bottled liquor is protection of the Government tax stamp that is afiixed over the bottle closure (cap) from damage by abrasion or sticking to the box flaps due to excess tax stamp adhesive.

One type of box construction used to prevent damage to the Government stamp is known as the head space pack. In this type, the box and partitions between bottles are made deeper than the overall height of the bottle, to avoid contact between the stamp and the box flaps. There are disadvantages to this construction. For example, with a head space, the bottles do not support stacking loads, and with normal box materials (melting carrier requirements) it is not possible to stack the boxes to normal warehouse stacking heights without the boxes collapsing. Consequently stronger box materials or lower stacking heights must be used, and either of these approaches increases costs. In addition, if the head space pack is inverted, or if the box is crushed (reduced in depth) damage to the Government stamp can still occur.

Another prior art approach has been coating of the inner flaps in a box having no head space. According to this approach, an adhesive repellent material is applied to the inner faces of the top inner flaps and also to the inner faces of the outer flaps where they are exposed in the flap gap (space between inner flaps) and facing the bottle tops. As an alternative, inner flaps can be made larger to avoid any gap between the edges thereof, and no coating is applied to the outer flaps. There are several disadvantages to this approach including the fact that inner and outer flaps have different coating patterns thereon, involving additional manufacturing operations at higher costs. Another disadvantage is the fact that considerably more coating is used than is necessary to achieve the desired objective.

Examples of some prior art patent having coated flaps or glue control features are as follows: 1,746,006, Metzger; 2,113,927, Alfred; 3,017,067, Parks; 3,094,432, Meyer.

These patents are not pertinent to the present invention, but might be of interest.

3,467,297 Patented Sept. 16, 1969 The present invention avoids the need for a head space, and yet also avoids the excessive quantities of material and extra manufacturing operations involved in prior art practices.

SUMMARY In a typical embodiment of the present invention, the container is constructed from a blank of paper board or other suitable material with end flaps at both ends, the top flaps being of particular interest, although the bottom flaps could also be treated in the same manner if the nature of the intended contents is such as to be benefited by it. In the typical embodiment a coating of nonabrasive and adhesive repellent material is applied on the inner faces of the top end flaps in strips extending parallel to the fold lines of the flaps. In other words, on each flap, the coating material is applied in strips parallel to the fold line of that particular flap. The number of strips and the distance thereof from the fold line is determined by the distance from the container wall to the Government stamp on the bottle tops, so that when the flaps are folded and facing the bottle tops, each Government stamp is faced by a coated area so that there is no chance of the label sticking to or being abraded by the flaps. Each strip extends throughout the width of the flap from one side edge to the other thereof and each strip is of a width such that when the blank is fiat all strips are aligned and the coating can be applied uniformly and continuously across the length of the blank as the blank is fed horizontally through the normal box making equipment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The full nature of the invention will be understood from the accompanying drawings and the following description and claims.

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of a box blank, showing the face of the blank which will form the inside surfaces when the box is set up (erected).

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of the set-up "box.

FIGURE 3 is a view of the top of the set-up box from the inside of the box with the flaps closed.

FIGURE 4 is a schematic plan view of the box and contents with the top flaps omitted and showing the 10- cations of partitions between the bottles, and also showing the bottle caps.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawings in detail, the box blank 11 has panels 12, 13, 14, and 16 therein which may be the front, left side, rear, and right side walls of the erected box. The tab 17 facilitates construction of the joint between the panels 12 and 16. Flaps 18 will serve as the inner flaps for the bottom and flaps 19 will serve as the outer flaps and these can be coated with glue for securing the same together in the erected box to form the bottom thereof. The top flaps might also be coated with glue in the same way, but in order to protect the Government stamps a protective coating in the form of an adhesive repellent and/ or a non-abrasive material, is applied on selected areas thereof.

As shown in the drawing, a strip 21 of coating is provided on flap 22 and extends parallel to the fold line 23 thereof. Similarly strip 24 on flap 26 extends parallel to the fold line 27 for that flap. The term strip as used herein is not meant to imply that a tape is fastened on the flap but only that the area coated with the adhesive repellent material is in the form of a strip, as the coating can be applied in the machinery simultaneously with the making of the box blank. Strips 31 and 32 on flaps 28 and 29, respectively, are aligned with strips 21 and 24 and are at the same distance from the fold lines for their respective flaps as are the strips 21 and 24. So it is that these four strips of coating material can be applied to the blank during a straight continuous uninterrupted path of the blank through the normal box-making equipment. There is no need to lift or otherwise interrupt the coating applicators and the coating extends from one side edge to the other of each flap as, for example between edges 33 and 34 of flap 22. Similarly, coating strips 36, 37, 38, and 39 are provided on the four flaps during the same paths and simultaneously with the previously mentioned strips.

FIGURE 4 shows the container divided into twelve compartments to receive twelve liquor bottles, establishing the bottle cap (and therefore the Government stamp) locations. As shown in FIGURE 3, wherein the bottle cap locations are illustrated by dotted lines, and where we are looking at the top of the box from inside the box, it can be seen that strip 24 faces one end row of bottle caps and strip 32 faces the other end row. Portions of strips 21 and 31 and portions of strips 37 and 39. face the bottle caps intermediate the ends and along the sides. Portions of strips 36, 38, 37, and 39 caps 42 and 43.

In an arrangement such as illustrated, where the bottles are arranged uniformly in the box at uniform spacings from the walls, each of the strips such as strip 24 can have a width (dimension X, FIGURE 3) which is at least the diameter of the bottle cap, and possibly a bit more, so that the Government stamp will be adequately protected. The distance of the strip 24 from the fold line 27 is equal to the minimum space (dimension Y, FIG- URE 4) between a portion of the cap or stamp thereon which is to be protected and the container wall to which the flap is mounted. Similarly, the distance of the strip 37 from the fold line is selected such that the strip will adequately cover the cap 42 or stamp thereon when it is nearest the wall 12. Again, the strip must be wide enough that by itself, or in cooperation with the other strip as shown, it will adequately cover the entire portion of the container nearest to the flap and which is to be protected. Therefore it is usually at least as wide as the greatest dimension of the bottle cap, such as the outside diameter of a circular cap, for example. This approach can be applied to containers of all sizes and face the bottle tax stamps covering their capped ends, said container having a pair of inner flaps extending from opposite walls of the container and folded inwardly to overlie the capped ends of the bottles, said container further having a pair of outer flaps extending from other opposite walls of the container and folded inwardly to overlie the outer faces of the inner flaps and those capped bottle ends not covered by said inner flaps, and a strip of protective coating on the inner faces of said flaps parallel to the fold lines of the flaps, the strip on each flap having a width at least equal to the largest facial dimension of the capped bottle ends with the strip being spaced from the flap fold line the same distance on each flap.

2. The invention of claim 1 wherein: said distance between the strip and the flap fold line does not exceed the minimum space between a container wall and the capped end of a bottle in place in the container.

3. The invention of claim 1 wherein: said protective strips extend parallel to the fold line of the flaps, with the distance of the strips from their respective fold lines being determined by the distance of the capped bottle ends underlying the strips from the container walls, whereby said flaps are adapted to position said coating in facing relationship to said capped bottle ends.

4. The invention of claim 3 wherein:

the strips on each flap extend continuously from one side edge to the other side edge thereof, and the strips on each flap are aligned with the strips of each other flap in the container blank before erection, whereby said coating is applicable in a straight through continuous process to all of said flaps of said container without discontinuity along a flap between side edges thereof.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,103,177 7/1914 Dye 229-51 1,746,006 2/1930 Metzger 229-17 1,917,886 7/1933 Hogan 229-15 X 2,113,927 4/1938 Alfred 229-51 2,162,556 6/1939 Lagaard 229-51 X 2,414,251 1/ 1947 Wilson. 2,810,507 10/1957 Saunders 229-51 X 2,874,891 2/195'9 Kelsall 229-48 X 2,996,235 8/1961 Turpin 229-37 3,017,067 1/ 1962 Parks 229-48 3,094,432 6/1963 Meyer-Jagenberg 117-63 DAVIS T. MOORHEAD, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

